Don't Run From Anything, Run Towards Everything

Christianity In Crisis

Found an excellent article today by Andrew Sullivan on The Daily Beast. It’s about Christianity, how it’s tarnished rusted destroyed by centralized power, and it has some very interesting insight. Belief in Jesus is the same as Buddha, nothing different for it’s all the same (Buddha isn’t mentioned in the article, that was whoever). But it’s true, whatever ‘religion’ you take to it’s all about the negation of self, complete resignation to the universal will. My problem though, is that through such resignation you give up your free will, which is given to us by God or the Universe or the Spaghetti Monster, whatever created existence. So are we supposed to make use of our free will, which inherently involves the use of the opposite of ‘complete resignation to the universal’? because free will only exists in a balance between the two extremes. Or are we supposed to deny ourselves free will, deny all evil and sorrow and balance? Would God have given us free will if he didn’t want us to use it? Would God have given us hell if he didn’t want us to use it?

Anyway, the article’s about what Jesus really taught, not what 2000 years of reshaped ideas teach. Buddhists get it. Hippies get it and so did all the Beatniks and Dharma Bums. But Christians have forgotten it, and feel free to point at the Pope and Santorum. The article makes me want to read the New Testament and do what the article describes Thomas Jefferson doing.